First Steps!

I was in the kitchen last night when Tone' brought Luke in saying that he "really wants mama". So he set Luke down on his chubby little feet and gradually let go and Luke stood there for a while and suddenly took a step! And then another....and another!
His First Three Steps!


And then he raised his chunky arms and hands into the air with a huge smile on his face. I think he was just as excited as we were.
He was still beaming a few minutes later....
And he was still raising his hands into the air. It looked like he was saying, "Hallelujah, I can walk!".

Global Warming, eh?

That's funny, I can't remember ever having a full week of snow on the floor of Portland before, but here we are, stuck in our little purple house with snow drifts all around us. Global warming isn't the point of this post though, as much fun as that would be I would probably just end up offending some with my unPortland thinking on the subject. (The only global warming this earth is going to see will be from the hand of God) Oops, I guess I just voiced my opinion on the matter, oh well, we'll see what comments I get. :)

Moving on....
We have continued to bake cookies as I am really trying this year to bake a variety so I can take them around to our wonderful neighbors. It is something I want to do every year and every year I never get around to it. This year I at least have been making a concerted effort, however, I didn't realize how much time and effort it takes to make lots of different cookies, especially with a "helpful" two year old and a baby who won't nap.


Tone' helped on Sunday by being in charge of the boys. Daddies are very helpful in that way:)We ended up with around 4 dozen sugar cookies and two dozen oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
Not exactly what I was hoping to accomplish, but the sugar cookies took a bit longer to decorate than I expected. I plan on making some Foldover Apricot cookies and some ginger snaps and hopefully something chocolaty and then I may actually fulfill a lifelong goal of delivering a plate of cookies to neighbors! Oh, how I hope it happens!!!


Tone' was feeling a little cooped up so he went outside and shoveled pathways and put chains on the car. This picture was taken Sunday before the next round of snow came down. At one point we all took a cookie break and went outside to play. Lukas wasn't too sure about it all. He just sat there sucking on his hood string watching Nikolas run around like a goofball.

Nik figured out that it is pretty funny to throw snowballs at mama and daddy.
Where's White Thunder?

Tone' named his little white car, "White Thunder" a while back, right now it looks more like a "White Cloud".
Two wheel drive pick-ups aren't very handy in the snow. It has just been sitting there for the last week as Tone' has been taking the van leaving me cooped up in the house. I haven't started to pull my hair out, yet. I do love snow and i am loving the time to be at home, baking cookies and cleaning the house, but can I just say, "THIS SURE IS CUTTING INTO MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!!".

Tone' and I even piled everyone into the van this evening and somehow maneuvered out of our driveway, (it was hairy for a while there) and headed to the mall. Unfortunately we only had time for one store as the mall decided to close early:( Not only that, but on the way we must have hit a snow bank a wee bit too hard and cracked, punctured, broke the fuel line or something associated with gas as we started smelling gas on the freeway and all the way back home:(( Then we kind of bumped the house a bit as we were barrelling into our driveway and knocked a shingle loose and put some lovely purple on my lovely green van. (I won't say who was driving so as to spare the guilty party) This just adds to the cost of this week of snow here in Portland, Oregon as a tiny little crack on my windshield couldn't handle the freezing temperatures and decided to form a nice long crack alllllllll the way across.
I'm ready to just stay put now for the long hall until we get back to our regularly scheduled driving conditions.
Hope you all are staying safe and not experiencing any frozen pipes or stuck cars or anything else that results from abnormal Oregon weather.

Merry Christmas!

Snow Much Fun

On the first snow day we went into "have fun" mode and I whipped out our train shaped cookie cutters to make some sugar cookies. Nikolas was very excited to be helping, but especially because the cookies were shaped like trains!

It was a little messy, but not too much and the food coloring washed out of everything and everyone easily.

Here's the Nikolas Express!

Mmmmm, tasting his own creation. There is nothing quite like enjoying something you have made with your own hands.

Then it was time to head outside to enjoy the first snow of the season, and the first time that Nik has old enough to really have fun in it. Simply put; he loved it!

Apparently his scooter is 3 wheel drive as he rode it all over the street running into snow banks and curbs and screeching with delight.

Boys aren't supposed to screech, are they? Well, maybe under a certain age is okay.....

Zoom, Zoom!!!

Even though the snow is cutting into our Christmas shopping and other errands, we are having fun enjoying the rare Oregon snow storm.

Nikolas, You Had It Coming

This picture just cracks me up. I love how I am just oblivious to what is going on between them and I love how Luke seems to know just what he is doing. Nikolas has no idea what he is up against. Lukas is 11 months old and only weighs two pounds less than Nik. Nikolas is constantly harrassing Luke so I don't feel sorry in the least for him.

Nikolas, you better start being nicer to your "little" brother!

Where's the Hose?

We let Lukas try feeding himself with a spoon and it was a pretty hilarious event.

He actually did pretty well and, surprisingly, yogurt even found its way into his mouth.
Woohoo, look at me! I'm using a spoon!
All right, forget the spoon, I'm gonna lick the bowl instead.
Where's the baby?!
There he is!
If only my tongue were just a little bit longer.
And the final product.
I asked Tone' if he wanted to clean the boy and his words were, "Where's the hose?"
He ended up taking a rare bath after this episode.

Domestically Disabled No More

I am continually amazed at how domesticated I am becoming. I think everyone would agree that I was domestically disabled about 2.5 years ago. Then suddenly, I began morphing into a cooking, baking, gardening, crockpotting, couponing mama, and now I will never be the same.

My first inspiration was my sister, who has always amazed me with her ability to whip a meal together with hardly any notice, and that she handmakes birthday and other cards for about 40 people a month, (she's currently making 150 cards for Christmas).

My sister-in-law, Karen, also amazes me with how she can figure out how to put Pergo flooring in all by herself, or take mismatched fabric remnants and an old window shutter and create a beautiful headboard for their bed. I still get excited when I change the lightbulbs and replace batteries in toys all by myself. Seriously, I'm tool illiterate.

Though my mom hasn't been around since I have had babies, I look back on my life growing up with her and think about the things that were memorable and want to replicate some of those things with my own children. She had a huge garden every year, which I had the pleasure of hoeing. Alot. I do have fun memories of it as well, though, like snapping peas together and digging for potatoes. I remember watching her dance around the pressure cooker as it was steaming its little top off and wondering if it was going to blow up on us. It didn't. So this fall I learned how to can pumpkin with a friend and I felt a little bit closer to mom. I also planted my very first garden EVER, and it did pretty well. I learned alot too.

I have also been blessed with a group of friends who have had to endure my dinner mishaps while I learn the ins and outs of cooking. (now Kate, was that butter, flour, milk then wait till it boils? or is there another step in there? I'll never remember.) Through rock hard biscuits and WAY too cheesy broccoli, they have all been very gracious and understanding.

Then there is Angela, my couponing partner in crime (well, sometimes I feel like a criminal depending on the cashier) who introduced me to printable coupons and got excited with me after my first time of getting cereal for FREE! We're both a little nutty about couponing, thankfully we have a saving money blog for me to post my grocery scores or you would be wading through pictures of my Walmart or Walgreen's trips.

And my Sherwi, as Nik calls her, who has slowly been switching me to the dark side, I mean, the organic side, of eating. So far I buy my milk from happy goats, my eggs from happy chickens, my beef from happy cows and my honey from happy bees. In other words, the animals get to run around in fresh air, which, if I were an animal, would be nice. Though, I don't know about the bees being happy, they always are buzzing around their hives sounding rather, well, ticked off.

There have been many, many others of you all who have inspired me to embrace being a wife and mother and all that that entails. It will be interesting to see just where this whole homemaking lifestyle takes me. Hopefully, once in a while, it will still take me up a rock or two, because I still think about rock climbing pretty much every day, but I have no regrets. Someday I will be putting a meal in the crockpot as my boys and I take off for the crags where we will learn about gravity and friction and all the other many things that God's creation can teach us.
You were right George, "It is a Wonderful Life" :)

Red Light, Green Light

Somehow, Nikolas learned that red means stop and green means go, I really don't know where he figured this out as I certainly haven't taught him.
Tone' and I learned this as we were in the car and I was approaching a stoplight. From out of nowwhere we heard a little voice in the back saying, "Red. Means. Stop, Mama."

Great, now I have a backseat driver.

It has continued since then and now every single stoplight and sometimes at stop signs I hear, "Red. Stop." or "Green. Go." depending on the color of the light.

It is pretty cute, and I probably need an extra set of eyes while I am driving. And now we can play the game, "Red Light, Green Light"!!